TOKYO – Kenichiro Fumita was crying so hard and so hard that he could barely articulate his words.
“I wanted to show my gratitude to the concerned people and volunteers who are making the Olympics work in these difficult times,” said Fumita, a Greco-Roman wrestler, between sobs, after finishing his last match this week.
“I ended up with this embarrassing result,” he said, shaking his head and looking miserable. “I’m truly sorry”.
Fumita, 25, had just won a silver medal.
In what has become a familiar – and sometimes painful – image during the Tokyo Olympics, many Japanese athletes have wept in post-competition interviews, apologizing for any results other than gold. Even some who had won a medal, like Fumita, lamented that they had disappointed their team, their supporters and even their country.
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–After Japan’s judo team won silver, losing to France, 25-year-old Shoichiro Mukai also apologized. “I wanted to hold out a little longer,” he said. “And I am very sorry for all the team members.”
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–Apologizing for being the second best in the world would seem to reflect an absurdly relentless success metric. But for these athletes competing in their home country, emotional displays of regret – which often follow pointed questions from the Japanese media – can represent an intricate mix of regret, gratitude, obligation and humility.
“If you don’t apologize for only getting the silver, you might be criticized,” says Takuya Yamazaki, a sports lawyer who represents players’ unions in Japan.
From a very young age, Japanese athletes “are not supposed to think they are doing sports by themselves,” Yamazaki said. “Especially in childhood, there are expectations from adults, teachers, parents or other older people. So it’s kind of a very ingrained mindset. “
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–The expectations placed on athletes have been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic, which made the Olympics very unpopular with Japanese audiences before the events began. Many may feel more pressure than usual to award medals to justify holding the Games, as anxiety rises over the rise in coronavirus cases in Japan. Athletes who have failed have expressed regret.
“I’m very angry with myself,” said Kai Harada, a sports climber, vigorously wiping his eyes during an interview after failing to reach the final. Takeru Kitazono, a gymnast who finished sixth on the horizontal bar, fought back tears when speaking of his supporters. “I wanted to show my gratitude with my performance,” he said. “But I could not”.
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–Naomi Osaka, in a statement after being eliminated in the women’s singles third round, said she was proud to represent Japan, but added: “I’m sorry I couldn’t live up to people’s expectations.”
In some respects, these athletes have offered an extreme form of the apologies that are part of everyday social manners in Japanese culture.
Upon entering someone’s home, a visitor literally asks for forgiveness. Workers going on vacation apologize for overloading their colleagues, while drivers express deep regret if a train is a minute late, or even seconds early. These apologies are generally a matter of convention rather than a statement of responsibility.
Sometimes the mea culpa are empty words. Business bosses and politicians frequently bow to the news cameras to apologize for a corporate scandal or political wrongdoing. In most cases, the consequences are slim.
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–People who study Japanese culture say that athletes’ apologies, even in the face of victory, stem from an instinct that has been cultivated since childhood.
“Americans are very good at finding reasons why you are great, even if you fail,” he said. Shinobu Kitayama, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan. But in Japan, he said, “even if you are successful, you have to apologize.”
Apologies are also likely to be recognized as unspoken expressions of gratitude, he said. Joy Hendry, anthropologist and author of Understanding Japanese Society. “I think they feel they should apologize for not achieving what they wanted” or meeting the goals of those who trained or supported them financially, Hendry said.
Fumita, the wrestler, may have also felt pressure to please his father, a well-known wrestling coach. In an interview on NHK, the public broadcaster, Fumita said she was afraid to answer a call after winning the silver medal. “I couldn’t pick up the phone,” he said. “I didn’t know what to say to my father.”
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–The absence of fans was palpable Tuesday night in a nearly empty stadium in Saitama, a suburb of Tokyo, during the men’s semi-final soccer match between Japan and Spain. About 64,000 seats were empty as the speakers sent cheers and recorded applause to the playing field.
After Japan lost in the final minutes of extra time, Yuki Soma, a 24-year-old midfielder, paid tribute to those who couldn’t be there. “By winning a medal at any cost, I would have liked to energize Japan and make them smile,” he said at the post-match press conference, eyes downcast. Bronze is still within reach for Japan, who will face Mexico on Friday.
Of course, Japanese Olympians aren’t the only ones expressing bitter disappointment after losing gold. China’s Liao Qiuyun cried in front of everyone after winning silver in women’s weightlifting last week. After the United States women’s soccer team fell to Canada Monday night in a semifinal, one of its members, Carli Lloyd, crouched down on the field, clasping her head with her hands.
But in a post-match interview, he did not apologize. “I was devastated,” Lloyd said. And he added: “We gave up so much, and you want to win.”
When Simone Biles withdrew from the gymnastics team competition and the individual full contest, she explained that she wanted to protect her own mental and physical health.
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–In part, the need to apologize may be due to hard training style that occurs in some sports in Japan, said Katrin Jumiko Leitner, associate professor of sports management and wellness at Rikkyo University in Saitama. When he first came to Japan to train judo, he said, he was shocked by the aggressive language of the coaches. “I thought: if that’s the way to become an Olympic champion, I don’t want to be,” she said. “They didn’t treat athletes like human beings.”
Some Japanese athletes have come under public criticism for not showing enough humility. Yuko Arimori, a marathon runner who won silver in Barcelona in 1992 and bronze in Atlanta in 1996, was accused of being a narcissist by some Japanese media after declaring in Atlanta that she was proud of herself.
Arimori understands why athletes continue to apologize, as they can convey a feeling of gratitude.
But “I think the fans know that the athletes have worked hard enough,” added Arimori. “So there is no need to apologize.”
Makiko Inoue e Hikari Hidacollaborated on this report.
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